I had the privilege of meeting dave on a couple of occasions when i visited the wanaka DZ a few years ago. I had a good chat with him and he was very warm and welcoming. My hearth goes out to Jools and the kids. RIP Dave

It was a lovely service. There was laughter, and there were tears, and there were stories. Lots and lots of stories =).

I'd never known Dave the way his old skydiving buddies did and so grateful they shared some of that. Even the next day I smiled when I remembered "No guts, no glory" BASE jump and a fishtailing campervan with his friends splattered on the window, banging away.

In reply to:

At the end of the ceremony, Dave was carried to his orange jump plane to the sound of Steppenwolf's 'Born to Be Wild' and flown off.

It was about the most poignant and wonderful way I can think of, to send him off like that.

Basically, what I'm saying is: although the circumstances kind of suck, big time, it was a heartwarming service, and he was a great man, and I'm glad to have known him.

* Photos I attached are from when he took me up on his 9997, 9998 and 9999th jumps - before he took his daughter Maye for his 10 000th =). The usual, resized to fit the max 100K limit.

I heard a few stories that I still can't quite reconcile with how Dave was as a DZO (just about the safest, most meticulous one I've ever known, that is).

At the end of the ceremony, Dave was carried to his orange jump plane to the sound of Steppenwolf's 'Born to Be Wild' and flown off.

Blue skies, Dave. You have my utmost respect for all you accomplished.

Dave and his bro Marty were quite the wild childs back in the day, I remember them both having a reputation for low dumping, it seems funny I once gave them both a rev up for dumping high, during a RW jump that fell to bits.....they both dumped high to do a bit of CRW....

Dave got serious when it was other lives at stake, once he became a TM and got his riggers rating.